Can you paint after a polish coat of spackle?

I just had my wall skim coated. The contractor wants to come back on Wed., polish coat then paint. When I paint to pick up my paint, the paint store guy said that the CONTRACTOR should not paint after putting a polish coat because the spackle has to release "gases" and painting afterwards could result in bubbling? Has anyone ever heard of this? Sounds bizarre?
THANKS!

 

What the heck is a polish coat? In 21 years of construction I have never heard that term. Is this drywall or plaster?

 

I've not heard that term either

Plaster needs to cure before applying primer/paint. It's been a long long time since I painted any new plaster but I think we had to wait about 3 days or so. The paint store had a piece of 'tape' that you stuck on the wall and if it turned red, the plaster still needed more time to cure..... or was it the other way around?

Can you give us a definition of what the polish coat consists of?

 

The term he used. He said that he will come back, sand and touch up where need be. He then wanted to paint after doing this. Is that ok?

 

If he is just sanding or otherwise smoothing out joint compound - then it's fine to prime as soon as he's done, just make sure he wipes or brushes off any dust from the sanding.

 

Polishing spackle doesn't make any sense at all. Burnishing plaster, sure. I can only infer he's simply mudding and taping the walls (with joint compound, not spackle). We need more information if that's not what he's doing.

 

Sorry for the confusion. He is skimming the walls with I believe is joint compound. He is coming back to sand. then clean up then paint. Prior to painting, he is going to "polish" the walls. Cand he paint after this?

 

I've never heard of polishing either. Maybe he's going to give it a final smoothing with a dry rag after sanding. As long as the compound is dry when he paints, it should be OK.

 

Sorry, still confused. I still think he's just sanding/smoothing the joint compound but I would ask him specifically what 'polishing' means to him.

 

He's probably taking a damp sponge and smoothing everything out. As long as he isn't adding anything to the walls [other than minor j/c touch up] - it should be fine to apply the primer.

 

Learn something new everyday

although I don't see the purpose of this on a skim coated wall. This method would be beneficial on a drywall job where it was a basic tape and mud of the joints and screws/nails as it would apply a miniscule amount of j/c to the paper that would otherwise be bare.

 

I agree, this seems like a lot of effort for little to no gain.

At least we know what a polish coat is now.

 

I believe that the "polish" coat would fill in any bubbles you might get with JCompound. I use 20 min. mud from powder and mix as I go. I hate having to return a day later to just to sand. Often it will look good except the sanding process has exposed tiny bubble holes. I take JC, hit the area and then pull really hard across it (12" knife), leaving basically nothing on the wall, but it fills in those little bubble holes. It drys quickly, and then you can wipe with a cloth to blend whatever edge profile you may have left in that area.

 

In the trades, that's commonly called a "level 5 finish"... not a polish coat. It's just a skim coat over the entire wall/ceiling. But some things have regional names.

It ensures a smoother surface, and you get less sheen problems with the paint. Sometimes after a wall is painted you can still kind of see where the butt joints and belly bands are through the paint. (joint photographing) Level 5 finish helps eliminate that problem.

As an alternative to skim coating, there are also Level 5 products that can be applied to the wall with a roller prior to the wall primer.